So this week training has been progressing slowly with my knee injury, I went to bootcamp and only did the exercises I could do pain free, which helped mentally with the fact I was still doing something.  I also saw Zoe for Acupuncture on my knee.  This really helped.  My body responds very well to acupuncture and its helping speed up my recovery a lot.  Many years ago I had Bi-lateral retinacula released performed on both knees – it’s now a procedure that isn’t carried out as it has a very poor success rate.  They basically go into the knee and trim the structures on the outside of the patella to free it up, however, all it does it create extra scar tissue and compound the original issue.  This, combined with a very old fashioned training coach, makes it no surprise that I suffer with bad knees! At the height of my running career my coach was into quantity not quality. Which is still the thinking of many long distance runners – the more miles the better!

This isn’t the case, it’s about the quality of the session, each mile run needs to combined into a correct training programme, not just plodded out.  Sessions should be at tempo, combined into a speed session or an interval session with only one long run a week.  There is little benefit to the body  running 10 miles every day at the same slow pace, as all the body will ever do is run 10 miles at a slow pace!  We have seen a few people this week to help with their running styles and I am adamant that with the correct advice, dedication and training, anyone can knock time off their marathon and half marathon times.